Bio

Mara Clawson, born in Korea, is a self-taught artist who uses pastels and iPad technology to convey her perception of the world. She discovered at a young age of 12 that art could connect her to others and her community in ways she hadn't before. Mara found a profound sense of self and says, 'Making art makes me who I am and gives me lots of courage.'

Mara recently reinvented her art making process by drawing on an iPad, which allows her creativity to flow and new concepts to emerge. This technology also permits others to watch, in time-lapse, Mara’s artistic process. Mara is a 2016-2017 winner of a VSA/Kennedy Center Emerging Young Artists with Disabilities award. Her award-winning video, "To Survive", is part of the (Re)Invention exhibition that has been traveling to several art museums nationally.

Mara works in her home studio in Bethesda, MD as well as at Art Enables and VisArts.